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Fire and timber harvests are the most influential factors affecting land coverage in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, with stringent controls on the Lake Tahoe Basin making it the exception, according to a study recently released by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Researchers looked at de tailed aerial photographs of the entire range from 1973 to 2000 to determine how land has been disturbed in the region.
Landscape disturbance from fire was the dominant change from 1973-2000, according to the study.
"The second most common change was forest disturbance resulting from harvest of timber resources by way of clear-cutting," the study suggests, and that "relatively minor landscape changes were caused by new development."
Timber harvests and wildfire have long been suppressed in the basin, according to Rex Norman, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. He said that tight land use controls have seen the basin "bucking the trend that is going on in many other parts of the Sierra Nevada."
Results of the study concur with Norman's assessment when the report says that development in the basin after 1969 "has greatly slowed due to the constraints of increased public ownership through intensive state and Federal land acquisition programs, as well as stringent regulations on new development aimed at alleviating adverse environmental impacts in the Lake Tahoe Basin."
Regulations like the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's land capability system, which limits land coverage to 30 percent on parcels most apt for development, can claim some responsibility for the slow down in development and alleviation of environmental impacts, according to the TRPA.
"Our land capability system has been a cornerstone of our ability to preserve Lake Tahoe," said Regan.
Even without the stringent regulations found in the basin, the study states that when the Sierra Nevada's change in land coverage is compared to other regions in the Western United States, "change in the Sierra Nevada eco-region can be described as low to moderate."
The change due to development is also limited to certain areas of the Sierra.
"Most of the small amount of new development we detected in the Sierra Nevada eco-region occurred along the western and eastern boundary of the eco-region in the form of commercial development to support tourism," according to the study.
The study looked to public land managers as the key to solving land coverage issues in the future.
"Extensive public land ownership, which continues to increase in areas such as the Lake Tahoe Basin, will almost assuredly dictate the future amounts and geographic distribution of directly human-induced land-use/land-coverage change such as timber harvest and urban development," according to the study.
Researchers looked at de tailed aerial photographs of the entire range from 1973 to 2000 to determine how land has been disturbed in the region.
Landscape disturbance from fire was the dominant change from 1973-2000, according to the study.
"The second most common change was forest disturbance resulting from harvest of timber resources by way of clear-cutting," the study suggests, and that "relatively minor landscape changes were caused by new development."
Timber harvests and wildfire have long been suppressed in the basin, according to Rex Norman, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. He said that tight land use controls have seen the basin "bucking the trend that is going on in many other parts of the Sierra Nevada."
Results of the study concur with Norman's assessment when the report says that development in the basin after 1969 "has greatly slowed due to the constraints of increased public ownership through intensive state and Federal land acquisition programs, as well as stringent regulations on new development aimed at alleviating adverse environmental impacts in the Lake Tahoe Basin."
Regulations like the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's land capability system, which limits land coverage to 30 percent on parcels most apt for development, can claim some responsibility for the slow down in development and alleviation of environmental impacts, according to the TRPA.
"Our land capability system has been a cornerstone of our ability to preserve Lake Tahoe," said Regan.
Even without the stringent regulations found in the basin, the study states that when the Sierra Nevada's change in land coverage is compared to other regions in the Western United States, "change in the Sierra Nevada eco-region can be described as low to moderate."
The change due to development is also limited to certain areas of the Sierra.
"Most of the small amount of new development we detected in the Sierra Nevada eco-region occurred along the western and eastern boundary of the eco-region in the form of commercial development to support tourism," according to the study.
The study looked to public land managers as the key to solving land coverage issues in the future.
"Extensive public land ownership, which continues to increase in areas such as the Lake Tahoe Basin, will almost assuredly dictate the future amounts and geographic distribution of directly human-induced land-use/land-coverage change such as timber harvest and urban development," according to the study.
